charging plug will not release from my i3

[jadnashuanh]

Last time mine was in, they replaced the release cable - the pull tab had gotten loose and came off of the cord...it was so tight, you could not really pull it out of its storage location. I think when they had the fender off replacing the lock previously, something got caught. ANyway, mine still sticks once in awhile, but the emergency release cable now works much easier (lots less force) to free up the plug. Some WD40, or similar seems to have helped on the pin, keeping it free.

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, I talked to my service manager, and there's a cutoff date about when the unlock at full charge will work...he didn't know the exact date, but it does not appear to be possible on the earlier build dates of the i3. The newest ones should have that capability, at least in the USA. Mine was an early build, therefore, at least for now, not possible.

 

[i3atl]

FWIW, I talked to my service manager, and there's a cutoff date about when the unlock at full charge will work...he didn't know the exact date, but it does not appear to be possible on the earlier build dates of the i3. The newest ones should have that capability, at least in the USA. Mine was an early build, therefore, at least for now, not possible.

The build date cutoff is 3/2015, as posted here previously.

 

[NoMoreGas]

Last time mine was in, they replaced the release cable - the pull tab had gotten loose and came off of the cord...it was so tight, you could not really pull it out of its storage location. I think when they had the fender off replacing the lock previously, something got caught. ANyway, mine still sticks once in awhile, but the emergency release cable now works much easier (lots less force) to free up the plug. Some WD40, or similar seems to have helped on the pin, keeping it free.

Where exactly should one spray the WD-40? Thanks in advance.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Last time mine was in, they replaced the release cable - the pull tab had gotten loose and came off of the cord...it was so tight, you could not really pull it out of its storage location. I think when they had the fender off replacing the lock previously, something got caught. ANyway, mine still sticks once in awhile, but the emergency release cable now works much easier (lots less force) to free up the plug. Some WD40, or similar seems to have helped on the pin, keeping it free.

Where exactly should one spray the WD-40? Thanks in advance.

I sprayed it into the locking pin above the electrical socket. Then, lock and unlock the car a few times to work it around. Now, whether that will solve the problem, I don't know. If not, I'll take it in and have BMW worry about it. Note, I'm not sure how the Menekes plug used in Europe works, or if this would work at all on theirs, but (hopefully) on the J1772 plugs, it seems to help, at least short term.

 

[NoMoreGas]

Thank you. I will try this as it has happened to me a couple of times.

 

[i3an]

Christmas Eve morning, the Level 1 charging cable will not release; press, squeeze, yank, wiggle, no luck. Lock, unlock, repeat, repeat, same story. In a hurry, so transfer the family to the SO's ICE, as, with amazing foresight, I had parked my backup ICE farther back in the driveway thus blocking it in, duh!
Christmas morning, more time, try again, same story, so try pulling on the blue release tab behind the passenger door, but it won't budge, so resort to a leveraging with a claw hammer, still no luck, and afraid to break it if I pull any harder I bail. Press the God button, but She says to call my dealer in the morning, so:
Boxing Day morning, try again, still no luck, so call SF BMW, but of course all the gearheads are off till Monday, so out of desperation I heed the words of Jim DeB: "I sprayed it [WD-40] into the locking pin above the electrical socket. Then, lock and unlock the car a few times to work it around." Ding! ding! ding! after a bit of wrestling the damn thing released and I have my i3 back. (They should have called it Wrestling Day.)
I have a very early model and had the latest software update installed a couple of weeks ago, but I suspect this is more of an elementary hardware issue, with dry metal sticking to dry plastic and eventually released by slippery WWII technology. Still, I will take my i3 in to SF BMW and hope they can offer me more succour than "never leave home without WD-40".

 

[jadnashuanh]

It's really frustrating, but WD40 seems to help in the short term. Originally, I think my release cable may have been misrouted or caught on something as it was REALLY hard to pull and have it do anything. They replaced my plastic release cable, and when it tried it, it seems to work MUCH easier (but, ideally, one would never have to use it at all!).

 

[Boatguy]

I had to release mine with the blue cable once as well, then the dealer replaced the entire locking mechanism and no problems since then.

However, I suggest a spray PTFE (aka teflon) rather than WD40. WD40 was invented to remove water ("water displacing" 40th formulation). You don't need a dead dinosaur based lubricant, you need something really slick. Try something like Sailkote McLube which will quickly dry and work wonders for much longer on sliding surfaces of any kind.

No I don't work for the company, but I've been using this stuff for years, it's widely used on boats.

 

[i3StormTrooper]

US spec May 2015 build

Purchased October 30th

Didn't really drive until end of November.

Late November the week of Thanksgiving, the car had the November software update completed.

Car still requires me to unlock the car before I can remove charging handle.

 

[i3an]

Update: dropped by SF BMW this morning, and the tech there mentioned another off-the-books way to force-release a stuck plug from the socket. At the very top of the car's charging bay there is a locking pin, which slides out to engage and lock the plug, and back in to unlock; under normal operation you can see this when you are plugged in and charging, if you squint in the narrow space above the plug as you lock and unlock the car you can see the pin slide out to lock and in to unlock — this pin will need to be pushed back in if it is stuck in the out position and all else (release cable, WD-40/PTFE) fails.
Try this: make sure the car is unlocked and the mains is off, say a prayer, then slide a very thin probe (e.g. a small screwdriver or a 1/16" drill bit) and push the head of the pin back in.

 

[cmj912]

This happened to me this morning. Plugged in all night. Went out this morning, pressed the button to pull the cable out, and nothing. THANK YOU to this forum and my phone for being able to find the posting about the cable release. It required quite a tug. I hope it never happens again.

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, they ended replacing the emergency release cable on mine. After they were done, it pulled MUCH easier. I think it may have included a slight rerouting in the installation instructions. Obviously, you should not need to use it at all, but over the time I've owned mine, I have. Hopefully, no more after the last tweak, though!

 

[SuedeGopher]

I posted this on the Facebook group page, but figured others here might benefit.

My tech spent some quality time with the car after the initial fix of a new lock actuator was done, but we still had intermittent issues. The tech's finding was that the hole in the charger housing that the locking actuator passes through had too tight of a tolerance on my i3. He increased the size of the hole and believes that will solve the issue (also put in another new lock actuator for good measure).

 

[55jwb]

coming in late on this, my wife and I got stranded in MK until we found the manual release, car had to go back in and had some kind of release actuator replaced as it has failed hence locking the cable in place...

 

[NoMoreGas]

Since I have been squirting in TriFlow into the pin area I have not had any problem. I do this every Saturday morning and the vehicle lives outside with temps as low as 4degrees F. It was getting more frequently stuck the colder it got. I will continue with my TriFlow squirt through the winter and stop for the summer once temps are higher than the 40's routinely.

 

[jadnashuanh]

PTFE based stuff has advantages, but an initial shot of WD40 will help dry the thing out and make it easier for the other stuff to penetrate. FWIW, the 'WD' in the name is for 'water displacement', and it works.

 

[cmj912]

My cable is being replaced along with something else. I had the issue again and when I pulled on the emergency it would not move.
Apparently it is going to take some weeks because whatever they need is coming from Germany. They gave me a pretty nice 2016 328i xdrive so I'm set with transportation. I just don't like having someone else's car. The heated steering wheel is very nice, though.

 

[paul]

Adding my woes to this thread.

I have a 2015 i3 rex, purchased in Jan 2016 from BMW Bellevue. Within the first couple of weeks we had the charge port replaced because the charge cables were not releasing. Everything has been going well until last weekend and now nothing releases. We were in Tacoma and on the way back stopped at BMW NW for an CCS charge... had to use the butter knife we keep in the car to remove the cable. We let their i genus do the removal.

So it looks like we're going to have to make another trip to the dealer for yet another repair.

I'll add some thoughts our CA had about this issue in the next day or two.

 

[cmj912]

The problem in my car was an incorrectly routed emergency release. It was literally bound in the "would not move" position.